NEW YORK CITY -- Savannah Guthrie was tasked with announcing the news Wednesday morning.
Her Today co-anchor, Matt Lauer, had been fired amid a complaint about "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace."
Her emotions were clear through her quaky voice.
"As I’m sure you can imagine, we are devastated," Guthrie said after reading a statement about Lauer's termination from the NBC News Chairman. "We are still processing all of this."
Hoda Kotb was seated in the place Lauer would be as Guthrie offered her thoughts on the situation.
"I’m heartbroken for Matt," Guthrie continued. "He is my dear, dear friend and my partner. He is beloved by many, many people here. I’m heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story, and any other women who have their own stories to tell. We are grappling with a dilemma that so many people have faced these past few weeks: How do you reconcile your love for someone with the revelation that they have behaved badly? I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know that this reckoning that so many organizations have been going through is important. It's long overdue, and it must result in workplaces where all women, all people, feel safe and respected. As painful as it is this moment in our culture, this change had to happen."
Kotb said she's known Lauer for 15 years.
"I've loved him as a friend and as a colleague," Kotb said. "Just like you were saying, Savannah, it's hard to reconcile what we are hearing with the man who we know, who walks in this building every single day. We were both woken up with the news kind of pre-dawn, and we're tying to process it and make sense of it. It will take some time for that."
Watch Guthrie make the announcement that Lauer had been fired:
